The List: 5 May 1989 (Issue 93)

stuck as a straightman to Rowan Atkinson‘s obnoxious bastard comedian. but whose life and career are to change forever when he becomes heavily smitten with nurse Thompson. Reasonably straight but slight love story needs a lot of comic business to keep it going. but amaiable performances all round makes this a likeable debut as director for Mel Smith. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Allanpark. Cannon. Strathclyde: AMC Clydebank 10. Odeon Ayr. I ATaxing Woman (18) (Juzo ltami. Japan. 1987) Nobuko Miyamoto. Tsutomo Yamazaki. Masahiko Tsugawa. 127 mins. The adventures ofa conscientious. nay obsessive female tax inspector allows ltami to ﬂing together a pot-pourri of serious. satirical and comic styles much in the manner of his earlier Tampopo. Aided once more by the charismatic presence of his wife Miyamoto. he just about brings it off. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Tequila Sunrise ( 15) (Robert Towne. US. 1988) Mel Gibson. Kurt Russell. Michelle Pfeiffer. 100 mins. Would-be ex-dope dealer Gibson finds that he can‘t quite shift his dark past. and his childhood friend Russell. now a narcotics cop. becomes involved in trying to track him down. Meanwhile. Pfeiffer is the glamorous restaurant owner romantically caught between the two ofthem.

Disapointing second effort as director from renowned screenwriter Towne (Chinatown). which fails to surmount well used narrative ingredients and winds down to a positively limp climax. Some good dialogue remains. but it‘s not enough. Glasgow: Salon.

I The Terence Davies Trilogy ( 18) (Terence Davies. UK. 1976-83) Wilfrid Brambell. 101 mins. A trio of short films Children. MadonnaAnd Child and Death And Transﬁguration by the gifted Liverpudlian. examining the life ofan alienated bachelor from his earliest youth to old age. and the constant tensions he feels between his homosexuality and his Catholic beliefs. A stuning piece ofwork. the ﬁrst signs that Britain had an up and coming ﬁlm-maker with a searing intensity of cinematic vision. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.

I The Terminator (18) (James Cameron. US. 1984) Arnold Schwarzenegger. Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton. 107 mins. In 2029 machines have all but conquered the planet but a saviour is at hand in the form of a new human leader. Part-man. part-machine, Schwarzenegger‘s cyborg is sent back from the future to 1984 on a mission to kill the future leader‘s mother.

Inventive . excitingly-paced science-fiction adventure with a notable performance from Arnie in his first villainous role. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.

I To Be Or Not To Be (PG) (Alan Johnson. US. 1983) Mel Brooks. Anne Bancroft. Charles Durning. 108 mins. Scene-for-scene remake of Ernst Lubitsch‘s classic 1942 comedy which has a group of Polish actors involved in both thespian and espionage activity during the Nazi occupation. Brooks and Bancroft are both superb. watch out for their Polish version of Sweet Georgia Brown. Edinburgh: Cameo.

ITwins (15) (Ivan Reitman. US. 1988) Danny De Vito. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Kelly Preston. Chloe Webb. 107 mins. In an effort to create the perfect human (male. natch) scientists impregnate a beautiful woman artist with the sperm of six diversely distinguished men. and the resulting offspring grows up in an isolated research station to be our man Arnie. However. an unexpected side-effect is runty brother De Vito. and when the two ﬁnally meet up many years later. their search to find their mother is the catalyst for an unlikely family relationship.

Even if the plot does bear a strong

— BETRAYEO

Betrayed (18) (Costa-Gavras, US, 1988) Debra Winger, Tom Berenger, John Heard. 127 mins. With ‘Missing' Greek director Costa-Gavras achieved that rare iusion ol Hollywood narrative entertainmentwlth a political content that refused to pull any punches, for its story oi Christian Scientist Jack Lemmon attempting to find his son amidst the turmoil oi Pinochet's Chile worked as both a moving exploration oi personal loss and an indictment of the US involvement In supporting such a patently corrupt regime. Here, however, his grasp seems to ialter, ior

‘Betrayed’ manages to undercut its

serious examination oi the unsettling activities of the American iar right with a iudged and convoluted storyline that almost plunges the whole enterprise Into bathos.

Debra Winger stars as an FBI agent sent undercover to check on mldwestem lartner Tom Berenger, a widower who seems at lirst such a warm and caring human being that the two tail in love. However, as she gets to know him better, she discovers that be is part of a nationwide white supremacist network and currently

engaged in covert actions against liberal and ethnic targets, and that his hobbies include hunting and shooting young blacks. In a state oi emotional turmoil, she is nevertheless ordered by agency superior Heard to continue her investigations and gather enough evidence ior a murder conviction, but day by day she grows increasingly fearful that her true identity will be revealed.

Joe Eszterhas's script is certainly agile In the way that it manages to juggle heroine Winger between the FBI and the downhome iascists, but the kind of yawning gaps in credibility (eerenger is part at a computer network, but still keeps his contact list under the floorboards, ior example) that you might find in a sub-Hitchcockina piece oi iluii badly undermine what is material oi the utmost seriousness. Even so, the depiction of ordinary country iolks, the backbone of the American population, as the holders oi the most distressineg reactionary set at values has a truth to It that pierces such lapses. As the camera tracks across country to lix on a huge Klu Klux Klan rain complete with huming crosses and Nazi ilags, the viewer's genuine irisson oi iear is almost enough for one to give the iilm's iorthrlght intention the beneilt oi the doubt over its compromised execution. (Trevor Johnston)

I The Untouchables ( 15) (Brian De Palma. US. 1987) Kevin Costner. Sean Connery. Robert De Niro. 119 mins. The best American drama of 1987 as naive Treasury officer Costner. gritty Irish cop Connery (the part that won him. as best supporting actor. his first Oscar). and a groupof incorruptibles tackle the bloated criminal empire of Prohibition kingpin Al Capone. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street.

I Utu (15) (Geoff Murphy. N. Zealand. 1983) Anzac Wallace. Bruno Lawrence. Tim Elliott. 104 mins. A New Zealand Maori. who also happens to be an enlisted man in the British army. goes on a ritualistic-murder spree after his own family have been wiped out in a raid on their village. Downbeat. well-intentioned drama. at times a bit too solemn to everbe much more than worthy-but-dull. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Film Society.

I Veronico Cruz ( 15) (Miguel Pereira. Argentina/UK. 1988) Juan Jose Camero, Gonzalo Morales. 96 mins. In the remote Juyjuy region ofnorthern Argentina. a teacher fosters a relationship with a young boy. left alone when his father went to the city to look for work. by telling him talesof the sea and ships. So entranced is the young lad that he joins the navy. and dies on the General Belgrano.

Pereira's auspicious debut manages the difficult feat oftelling a small story with great compassion. while simultaneously commenting on great political events. Edinburgh: Cameo.

I La Viellle Dame Indigne Edinburgh: French Institute. (‘aII French Institute for details.

year-old Lili (Zentout) is on holiday in Biarritz with her family. attemptingto dissipate her boredom with a taste ofthe local nightlife. She meets up with seedy lounge lizard type Maurice (Chicot). a forty year-old computer programmer. who is out to seduce her. while she remains ambivalent about the loss of her virginity.

Uncomfortably realistic but unexploitative exploration ofpubescent sexuality. with our petulant young heroine more in search of affection and a sense of self-worth than any physical gratiﬁcation. Finally. it‘s the candour with which the subject is handled than the difﬁcult area of generation-gap relationships that makes the film compulsive. unsettling viewing. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.

I The Wild Bunch (18) (Sam Peckinpah. US. 1969) William Holden. Robert Ryan. Edmond O‘Brien. Ernest Borgnine. Warren Oates. 134 mins. 1913. a groupof aging outlaws whose time has passed try to bring off one last raid with an incursion into Mexico. Brilliantly made politicised western (the Vietnam parallels are obvious). best known for its exquisitely choreographed bloodletting but also notable for a warmly eiegaic tone marking the end of the old West. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.

I Willow (PG) (Ron Howard. US. 1988) Warwick Davis. Val Kilmer. Joanne Whalley. Jean Marsh. 126 mins. A mystery baby turns up in the land ofthe little Nclw yn people. and one oftheir number has to returii it to the adult-sized land of the I)aikim. However. the kid turns out to be the little princess whowill save the country from the clutches of the wicked Oueen.

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